There’s a lot to be said for the expat life in Amsterdam. You can live in a baroque canal house and buy fresh flowers for a fraction of what the blooms cost back home; everyone (everyone!) bikes to work. For the chief marketing officer of Tommy Hilfiger, Avery Baker, 42, who has been based in the Dutch capital for a decade, life has been a dream. Except for one thing: the weather.

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Heirloom tomato salad; Photo: Philip Sinden

“I’ve spent 10 years in the rain,” says Baker ruefully. So when a rare sunny day arrived recently, she took advantage by hosting a dinner and a canal cruise on the boat she and her husband, Tony Kurz, share with friends. The meal conveniently came courtesy of the in-house chef at People’s Place, Hilfiger’s Amsterdam staff canteen. “Amsterdam is not a cocktail town,” says Baker, who is happy to promote cultural exchange via trays of (very American) lemon-and-mint Southsides.

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Baker with her husband; Photo: Philip Sinden

For as long as she can remember, Baker wanted to live abroad, so when the chance came to relocate to Hilfiger’s European hub, she and Kurz jumped. (The pair now have two kids: daughter Kaya, four, and son Cooper, one; Kurz also works as an executive for the Hilfiger family.) “Life is much more relaxed here,” says Baker, who began working for Hilfiger at the company’s New York City offices in 1998. “People work hard, but work doesn’t define them as much.” Tonight’s guests, friends of the couple since they arrived, include a real estate investment guru who also raises llamas (yes, really), the author of a Dutch guide to motherhood, a polo player, and a Spanish transplant married to a Dutchman.

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Crowd-pleasing charcuterie; Photo: Philip Sinden

Another perk of Baker’s overseas life is her digs, which boast a certain kind of charm you couldn’t get stateside. Made of two buildings that were combined during the 1740s by the prominent Dutch painter Jacob de Wit, the house sits in the Negen Straatjes (Nine Streets) neighborhood. Unlike many of the city’s skinny wood-frame row houses, Baker and Kurz’s abode is generously scaled, with a downstairs eat-in kitchen that opens to a backyard garden. Baker and Kurz, habitués of flea markets around Europe, found some of their most striking pieces, such as a midcentury brazilwood console from Denmark and a mud cloth tapestry from Oceania, at the Marché aux Puces de Saint-Ouen in Paris. Baker also gets sourcing help from Dan O’Kelly, a showroom design whiz for Hilfiger, who found the striking, oversize Indonesian conch fossil that sits in their living room.

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The peony-peppered spread; Photo: Philip Sinden

Even more crucial to them than the house, though, is the boat. Boats are to Amsterdammers as Vespas are to Romans; this one, 23 feet long, with matte black cushions and teak decking, is a share with friends, the fourth watercraft in Baker and Kurz’s Amsterdam tenure. “Our first was the size of our coffee table,” Baker recalls. “But it was the best way to explore the city. You just get a permit and find parking spaces along the canals as you go. This boat is probably as grown-up as we need to be. Now we have good speakers, which is what really counts.” Oh, those speakers. “The rule here is, whoever is driving gets the iPod dock,” says Baker.

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A postdinner cruise; Photo: Philip Sinden

Tonight that’s the llama farmer, and his song is Daft Punk’s “Get Lucky.” Luckily for all, the local authorities don’t seem to have a problem with booming sound systems—or with open containers. Tonight’s dessert, served onboard, is yogurt, fruit, champagne, and a white wine from Piedmont. “The only thing they’ll get you for here is speeding,” says Baker, referring to anything above a chugging crawl. “But that’s when you just say you don’t speak Dutch.”

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